This site has now been retired. I've moved to my new site Silverknife, where you'll find new blog posts and all my latest projects and photos. These pages will remain for at least a while, as I know some of you are still looking through the archives, but I'm reposting my travel journals and many other articles on the new site. Come and check it out.
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It's back and it's huger! We're following on from yesterday with the second half of my sunny day outing. And moving on from Mowsbury Park into the adjacent Putnoe Woods... |
Cool! A fungus I can recognise! This is King Alfred's Cake fungus, which is excellent as tinder for firelighting. See? A little bit of survival knowledge has actually sunk in from all my reading.
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These are the most beautiful woods. Small area but incredibly rich. Of course the "wild" appearance is kind of deceptive, they are carefully managed by staff who cut trees in designated areas to keep the variety of wildlife and plants (if the trees get too thick they block out the light and the undergrowth suffers).
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I found a fallen tree to sit on, and listened to the beautiful bird chorus, as well as woodpeckers (warning: links go to videos. Sorry folks, I tried to strip the audio off but it just got screwed up!)... |
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...and enjoyed a delicate little mug of green tea. I brought books with me and a notebook for planning some work for later, but I just didn't seem to feel any need for entertainment. It felt like the stage of quitting cigarettes when you don't crave them any more, but you keep expecting to...I felt stripped down, simplified in my needs and thoughts, and fundamentally very human. |
This is very closely linked to what I was talking about in the skills article, times and activities which are just us and the place we are in and the things around us. We completely step out of the structure and just be. It's the most refreshing and powerful experience of our own presence. There's a similar feeling in Zen meditation, when you reach the stage of completely letting go of your yearnings and just float in the instant. But in that case it's about total detachment, whereas this is total involvement in your environment.
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Spot the gratuitous beefcake shot: Me with tea. Green tea prices skyrocket.
Oh, and I found more fungus! God knows what this thing is, it looks extremely nasty but that's not always representative. Must go digging in my mushroom bookage.
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I could honestly have stayed there all day (or possibly forever), but shortly the weather started to change,
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and I remembered that my backpack is not consistently waterproof and I had nowhere well-protected to pack my camera. [sigh]. So it was heading home time.
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The wood from the outside. Is it just me or does it have it's own slightly ominous shadow despite the sunshine? I think I like that best of all... |
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More hazardous on-road camerawork, mostly in the interest of capturing some of those amazing skies. |
On arriving home, I realised that I'd just cycled about 12 miles on an apple, a banana and some green tea. I mainly realised this as my legs were shaking and I felt dizzy. Hence...
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The sandwich of the gods. Cucumber and tuna fish with garlic and thyme mayonnaise. |
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NOT, I might add, dull tasteless dried thyme, but this stuff: |
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It costs about £2.00 from any reasonable supermarket (I know Tescos, Sainsburys and Marks and Spencers in Bedford all have live thyme plants). You put it on your windowsill, give it water and a bit of baby bio, and you cut bits off sometimes and put them in everything. It's that complicated. And nothing in the world tastes better than fresh thyme. When I cut some, I have to immediately wash my hands because if I don't concentrate I start gnawing on my fingers. While you're there, why not pick up some basil too?
Ha! And you thought you'd get away without a recipe.
The odd thing was...when I was coming back, this was going to be just a quick stop in to waterproof my rucksack and pick up food before more expeditioning. But once I got sat down at my desk (just while I ate my sandwich), the place started to pull at me. I didn't actually want to do anything in particular, everything in the flat seemed pretty disinteresting, but suddenly going back out seemed less inevitable and more like a chore. Before I re-entered my flat, I couldn't imagine spending a minute longer than I had to indoors. But once sat down, I looked out of the window and what had seemed like a space of infinite possibilities seemed like...a big hassle! Is this just something that happens to me? Sometimes apathy just seems to hit like a steamroller. It took a huge amount of energy and about an hour for me to get the impetus back up and leave the house again, but after about a half hour of just walking I was back in the "outdoors mode" and I couldn't imagine that inertia any more. It's a weird thing...that exact feeling seems to be the source of all my inability to get out and do things with my life. I wonder if the same thing happens to other people. It just seems so weird that this pathetic little feeling of "it's such a hassle" should be able to overpower this huge strong feeling of "it's an adventure!"
My afternoon expedition was a bit less euphoric, but very satisfying. I started from the centre of town,
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and just walked along the River Ouse for miles...it was flooded in several places due to recent rain, which was fun to see.
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And then all of a sudden, there was a fence, and a stile...and beyond it were fields. I just walked right out of town!
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The path beyond ran along the edge of plowed fields, pretty empty and grim, but I was determined to keep going and I was even ready to camp out if I could find a suitable spot (despite having no sleeping bag, source of fire, or much food...yeah, I was feeling a bit buzzed!)
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Sadly I eventually reached a spot where the path was washed right out, and the field was just a giant bog, not worth trying to work around it. I would have had 4ft blocks of mud on my feet in a minute. So I turned back, and really started to realise how exhausted I was...if I'd kept going for even another half hour I probably wouldn't have had the strength to come back. So it was probably for the best. And on the way back I found lots of lovely newgrown nettles, of which more next time. (Hooray, another entry I don't have to think of an idea for!)
I still feel weird just writing about...stuff that comes to mind, or happens to me. But I've decided that I'll just keep writing for the pleasure of doing it, and not worry too much about entertaining people or achieving something. It really helps my brain sometimes to get stuff down on (virtual) paper, and the process helps me explore and break down the stuff that's on my mind at the moment. If it provides you folks with a bit of entertainment, or brings up some interesting thoughts, that's great, it's a wonderful bonus. Most of all I really want to document this time, because it feels like everything is changing in my head and my life, and I want to understand it and remember what it was like...I thought the SAEL project was going to be all about the travel, but more and more it seems like the journey's begun already. I'm not the person who started writing two weeks ago, and by the time I even get on the plane I'm going to be someone else again...weird times. Have a great weekend everyone.
And if you like this blog tell a friend! Okay I admit it, it was all lies, I'm just an attention whore.
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